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WHO is partnering with the recently
launched Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use in dealing with global
tobacco epidemic. This initiative is committed to
scale up the tobacco control efforts in developing countries where the health
burden from tobacco use is highest. Through this initiative, the tobacco
control activities will be supported in 15 developing countries viz. Bangladesh, Brazil,
China, Egypt, India,
Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan,
Philippines, Poland, Russian
Federation, Thailand,
Turkey, Ukraine and Viet Nam.
WHO is one of the key partners to
provide technical support and guidance to help governments around the world to
develop national tobacco control plans, pass and enforce key laws and
implement effective policies and tobacco control measures.
The Bloomberg Initiative as a whole,
combining the Grant Mechanism
and Technical Assistance, focuses on four components and four key interventions at country level and is coordinated by the five key partner organizations. The
components are:
1. Refine
and optimize tobacco control programs to help smokers stop and prevent
children from starting.
2. Support
public sector efforts to pass and enforce key laws and implement effective
policies, in particular to tax cigarettes, prevent smuggling, change the
image of tobacco, and protect workers from exposure to other people’s smoke.
3. Support
advocacy efforts to educate communities about the harms of tobacco and to
enhance tobacco control activities so as to help make the world tobacco-free.
4. Develop
a system to monitor the status of global tobacco use.
The
key interventions are:
1. Options to increase tobacco-related taxes.
2. Enact and enforce smoke free legislation.
3. Change the image of tobacco through
advertising bans, anti-tobacco advertisements and health warning in packaging
and labeling.
4. Improve and strengthen tobacco-related
monitoring and surveillance.
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